| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
|
| Year : 2013 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 3 | Page : 176-183 |
|
|
Status of current research evidence on diabetic neuropathy from a 40-year quantitative trend analysis of published articles in PubMed: A descriptive study
Senthil P Kumar1, Adhikari Prabha2, PS Jeganathan3, ZK Misri4, Vaishali Sisodia5
1 Department of Physiotherapy, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India
2 Department of Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, (Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India
3 Department of Physiology, Kasturba Medical College, (Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India
4 Department of Neurology, Kasturba Medical College, (Manipal University), Mangalore, Karnataka, India
5 Department of Physiotherapy, Srinivas College of Physiotherapy and Research Centre, Pandeshwar, India
Correspondence Address:
Senthil P Kumar
Department of Physiotherapy, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Haryana
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/2278-0521.127056
|
|
|
Background: Neuropathy is the most common complication of diabetes mellitus and diabetes is the highly prevalent non-communicable life-style disorder until the date. Diabetic neuropathy (DN) presents a clinical challenge, with chronic disabling pain, neurological dysfunction, and impaired quality of life. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the evidence base for DN descriptively and report the current state of published articles indexed in PubMed. Materials and Methods: Descriptive exploratory study through a literature search was carried out to identify 9 time-points in the timeline from 1970-2010, with 5-year intervals in order to identify the scientific trend for the evidence-base in DN. The number of obtained citations were classified and analyzed under the names of search filters of PubMed namely - text availability, publication date, species, article type, language, gender, journal categories, age, and subject areas. The numbers for categories and subcategories of search filters were considered for comparison and analysis. Descriptive analysis using the frequencies on Microsoft Excel 2010 worksheet was carried out. Results: Although overall number of articles was less, there was an exponential increase in number of articles in DN over the 40 years. After comparison for various categories and sub-categories, there was a greater prevalence of "abstract available" articles, human studies, reviews, English language, MEDLINE journals, Middle-age population and cancer, with nearly equal gender representation. Conclusion: This study explored the existing research articles indexed in PubMed utilizing a quantitative approach reflected the status of current practice-based evidence. Future analyzes on DN should address diabetes-specific and age-specific influences on evidence. |
|
|
|
| [FULL TEXT] [PDF]* |
|
 |
|
